Collection Description

This collection consists of correspondence, business papers, deeds, receipts, and other papers of the Shrimpton family, Boston and London merchants and New England landowners. The papers of Colonel Samuel Shrimpton, 1665-1701, contain correspondence, notes and bonds, business accounts, deeds, and household receipts. Among his considerable property was the Exchange Tavern in Boston, Beacon Hill land, and farms at Rumney Marsh and Noddles Island, and he was part of a Merrimac lands syndicate. Included are accounts, invoices, and correspondence, 1674-1698, tracing Shrimpton ventures and ownership of numerous vessels, including the ships John and Thomas, 1674-1676; John and Anne, 1674-1682; Orange Tree, 1684; Loyall Society and Larke, 1685; Dolphin, 1691-1696; Elizabeth, 1691-1695; Barron, 1692; Good Hope, 1694; St. Iago, 1695; and a second Elizabeth purchased from Nicholas Roberts in 1698. Papers document a trading voyage to Bilboa with Thomas Dongan, as well as numerous Shrimpton enterprises originating at Boston in partnership with Dongan, Seth Perry, and William Mumford. Among the correspondents are Capt. Thomas Jennors, Nicholas Roberts, Anthony Merry, John Mico, and William Cahane. Included are accounts and personal notes of Peter Sergeant, 1680-1684; Ephraim Savage, 1679; Christopher Saunders and John Foote, 1678; Hugh Strode, 1679; and Thomas Jarvis, Francis Cook, Samuel Peacock, Daniel Matthews, and Stephen and Samuel Richardson of Rhode Island. Papers related to a lawsuit filed by Shrimpton's sister Elizabeth and her husband Peter Sergeant over the administration of their father's estate, 1685-1686, include depositions containing Shrimpton's criticisms of Massachusetts Governor Simon Bradstreet. Also included is Shrimpton's will, 1697, and detailed documents and receipts connected with his funeral and estate, 1698-1701.

The collection also contains correspondence between the London heirs to the Shrimpton estates and their agents at Boston related to farms, mills, and lands in New England, 1710-1761. Included in letters of Robert Temple and his son Robert Temple, Jr., resident tenants, are inventories of farms at Rumney Marsh and Noddles Island, cattle and garden accounts, building descriptions, maintenance records, and leasing terms. The sale of Beacon Hill lands to Thomas Hancock is documented in 1752.

Papers of Samuel Shrimpton, Jr., 1698-1708, consist of deeds, correspondence related to Maine trading ventures, and consignment cargoes shipped from Piscataqua in partnership with Epapherus Shrimpton, as well as letters to members of his family and papers related to the settlement of his estate by his uncle Nicholas Roberts.

John Yeamans papers date from his marriage to Elizabeth Shrimpton in 1720 to his death in 1743. Included is correspondence with Boston agents related to the management of Shrimpton holdings in New England during the minority of his son and sole Shrimpton heir, Shute Shrimpton Yeamans. Letters from Boston agents David Stoddard, John Boydell, Thomas Steel, and Henry Caswell detail leasing arrangements, specifications and estimates for building improvements, comparative values of stock relative to the English market, and 18th-century farming practices. Among the correspondents are Samuel Brown of Salem and Robert Robinson of Newport. John Yeamans's letterbooks, kept while serving as lieutenant governor at Antigua, 1738-1742, include copies of official documents and correspondence pertaining to British administration of the Leeward Islands, petitions of local merchants and sugar planters, comparative tables of specie valuation, and details of enslaved people's uprisings of 1739-1740, with government orders for countering these insurrections.

Papers of Shute Shrimpton Yeamans, 1743-1761, include letters to his father during his apprenticeship to Knox and Craghead, London merchants, 1743-1744, and accounts for sugar consignments and information on European markets. Correspondence with his agent at Boston, Thomas Greenough, include terms for the sale of the last Shrimpton property on Beacon Hill and Noddles Island, 1750-1761.

Stoddard family papers, 1706-1786, include records documenting David Stoddard's work as Shrimpton family agent at Boston and accounts of Stoddard family land speculation at Ashford and Pomfret, Conn. His journal describes frequent trips to Connecticut to lay out boundaries and develop farm lands, 1717-1723. Also included are management accounts of the Lincolnshire Company, 1717-1723, continued after David's death by his brother Anthony Stoddard. Business activity at London in association with his father Simeon Stoddard and William Clark is documented in invoices for fur pelt shipments from Piscataqua, 1706-1709, and correspondence, 1711-1712. Papers of Anthony Stoddard include receipts, correspondence, and accounts of Connecticut lands, 1718-1741; records of waterfront property in Boston, 1727-1743; and papers concerning his estate, 1748.

Papers of John and Martha Stoddard Stevens, 1757-1786, include correspondence, deeds, receipts, and accounts for shipping ventures on the Wolfe, 1758, and the Jenny under the command of Capt. George Ball, 1759. Of interest is the account of Joseph Greene, Jr. detailing the outfitting of the Wolfe for transport service to Quebec, 3 Mar. 1761. Also included are reports and inventories related to the settlement of Ebenezer Holmes's estate; inventories of Martha Stoddard Stevens's personal property at the family home at Ashford, 1775, and papers related to her estate, 1785-1786; and accounts for Muscongus land transactions.